Monday, January 29, 2007

Work Prints 2007

Click the picture to view work prints from the whole of the Hills project. I've added around 80 images from work done over the past year to previously selected work. I have a final selection of around 40/50 images in mind, but given the wide range of material, I find the main problem one of finding a way through it all via a narrative that makes some sense. I'll start working on that problem soon, once I've gone through the various tape interviews I've made.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Weardale Castings

Wolsingham's Weardale Castings has a strong place in the Durham Dales' sense of identity. Its location reflected the confluence of raw materials and transport that all contributed to steel production - flourspar, iron ore, coal, and the rail link to Teesside.

Today, none of these are sourced locally, the ore largely replaced by scrap iron, the coal by electric arc furnaces, the rail by road, and the flourspar is imported. Weardale Castings went into administration in 2002, but a last-minute buyer from Tyneside stepped in to save the plant. Today 60 workers, including a key contingent of Polish moulders, work there.